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The Tech Week that was December 16-20 2019

As we approach the end of 2019 I wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This will be my last update for a few weeks as I will also take a little break over the holiday season.

Despite a lot of people winding down for the year, there was still lots of interesting news from last week with lots of data points pointing to an even better 2020, so read on.

SEMI is predicting that the tide has turned and that 2020 looks positive for industry with many positive indicators. The global purchasing managers index has started to improve after a steady decline and is now back up above 50, expansion territory, in November. In addition equipment manufacturers sales showed a 2% QoQ improvement in Q3, and up 0.4% on Q3 a year ago. With many other indicators also indicating growth, things are looking good for 2020.

Micron also announced this week on their earnings call that they have reached the bottom and expect recovery in 2020, in addition they announced they had obtained all requested licenses to ship some products to Huawei. Microns fiscal Q1 total revenue was US $5.1 billion, up 6% sequentially but down 35% YoY. DRAM sales which represents 67% of their revenue was up 2% on last quarter but down 41% YoY, whilst NAND showed better performance up 18% sequentially and only down 14% YoY.

Microns assessment that they are at the bottom is in line with DRAM prices, which showed a rebound this month, with prices up more than 10% on the low in December last year. DRAM eXchange is predicting that prices will rally as early as the first quarter in 2020.